This recipe is very simple and uses what we used to throw away – pineapple rinds.

Tepache ingredients

Add two cinnamon sticks and a teaspoon of brown sugar to a large jar. When you are done cutting up your pineapple and have piled up the fruit for eating separately, throw away the top, halve the rinds and cores, and loosely stack and stuff them into the bottom of the jar. Add water to just top off the pineapple. Agitate a little and set a lid on top. Agitate a little every day for 3-4 days. We taste it at 3-3.5 days to judge its doneness. Throw away pineapple parts and cinnamon, then strain the nectar into a smaller jar and keep in the fridge.

Tepache ready to ferment

We like to mix it half and half with sparkling water, and gin tepache on the deck in the evening is superb.*

* Warmer kitchen temperatures probably accelerate the fermentation process, so you might want to check it at, e.g., 2.5 d. Also, we sometimes get a bad batch when something on the rind takes things in an unsavory direction. Toss it and try another pineapple. Fruit quality and flavor tend to correlate with how good the tepache turns out. I’ve gotten better at selecting, choosing ones that are goldening up from the bottom and are clean. Finally, My great sister Mary tells me that we should wash our rind fruit.

Tepache, drained and strained.